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X-Men: 10 Times Iceman Earned His Status As An Omega-Level Mutant

Robert 'Iceman' Drake first rose to prominence as a member of the superhero team on the cartoon show Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Since then, he has shown up in various media, including as one of the younger mutants in the X-Men movies and various cartoon incarnations of the supergroup.

Despite ranking on the same level as Jean Grey's staggeringly powerful Pheonix persona, Iceman is often dismissed as a minor superhero, because he has historically had a hard time living up to his own potential. Here are 10 times Iceman broke through his own mental reserves and cemented his status as an Omega-level powerhouse.

10 Freezing A Celestial Ship

The celestials are beyond Odin-level threats in the Marvelverse. They are beings of such immense power that they routinely partake in the destruction and creation of entire worlds. Naturally, the celestials have had more than a few run-ins with Marvel heroes.

In one such incident, Iceman sneaked aboard a celestial spaceship, a vehicle of unimaginable power and unfathomable dimensions. He then proceeded to turn everything into ice. Not just everything inside the ship, but the very ship itself.

9 Containing A Fusion Core Explosion

There are plenty of super-strong heroes who have been shown to withstand the full blast of a fusion core explosion, which is equivalent to a nuclear explosion. But how many are able to contain the explosion itself? Furthermore, this all happened while Iceman was busy getting some action. Naturally, instead of breaking up the kiss temporarily to move to a safer location, he turned the very explosion itself into ice.

To put that in perspective, this wasn't even something Iceman had to struggle to do. The dude can contain the energy of an entire nuclear bomb while tongue wrestling with Mystique.

8 Stopping The Juggernaut

If you think of Juggernaut as just another super-strong guy, you haven't been paying attention to the comics. The Juggernaut is a magical being, who has been granted the ability to gain unstoppable momentum with each step until not even the enchanted hammer of Thor can stop him in his tracks.

Iceman managed to accomplish this feat during one of the X-Men's many encounters with the unstoppable entity. Granted, the Juggernaut was not in his top form at the time, but it was still one of the very rare times that any being had been able to take him out mid-stride.

7 Taking On Pheonix-Cyclops

The Pheonix is a cosmic level entity and one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe. While usually linked to Jean Grey, the Pheonix Force has occasionally found a host in other humans. Like the time it combined with Cyclops and became an even more unstoppable entity.

The usually laid-back Iceman had to go all out to battle this version of the Pheonix. But he was still able to take on the cosmic level threat one-on-one long enough for the rest of the heroes to regroup for the final attack.

6 Letting Hell Freeze Over

The potential of Iceman's freezing ability really cannot be overstated. For instance, one time he traveled to Hell itself. Not an earthly resort which uses the title as part of a gimmick. Not an alien location representing an approximation of hell. But the actual, literal embodiment of Hell that exists in the Marvel universe.

Not only did Iceman go there, but he froze Hell over too. At least, a large part of it. It took a lot out of him, but he did manage to make one of the oldest phrases in the English language into a literal reality.

5 Creating A New Ice Age

In one storyline, Iceman was embedded with a Celestial Death Seed that temporarily turned him evil. While in this state, he let loose with his powers like never before, with some terrifying results. For instance, there was the time he blanketed all of New York and the surrounding area in a blanket of snow and ice.

So immense is Iceman's power that he could have plummeted the world in a new ice age if he had not been stopped by the other X-Men. But he still managed to inflict untold havoc on the planet due to his tampering with the weather.

4 Realizing His True Potential

While carrying the celestial death seed, Iceman became colder and more evil, but also much more aware of his capabilities. He stated while in that avatar that he had the power to kill the entire world in a second.

While that kind of power boost that could destroy the planet in an instant might seem like a result of carrying the Death Seed, it was revealed that Iceman always had such immensely destructive capability but had simply never tapped into them.

3 Becoming A Giant

In most battles, Iceman is part of a team and limits his attacks to the standard ice blasts and pointy weapons. But when he starts getting creative with his powers, you get to see just how much potential his abilities have to inflict pain on his enemies.

Here we see Iceman turn himself into a giant, Voltron-like creature to fight another giant monster. As he absorbed more ice and moisture to achieve a bigger size, his strength and durability received a correspondingly gigantic boost.

2 Operating At A Molecular Level

People often mistake Omega-level mutants as beings who are the most powerful because they operate on a cosmic power level; however, that is not the only defining category of Omega mutants. It also takes a staggeringly powerful level of control to be able to operate on a molecular level.

One time, after being poisoned, Iceman was able to replace each individual cell in his body, one by one, with fresh clean ice. It still remains one of the most impressive examples of genetic self-hacking in comics.

1 Turning Light Into Ice

We head to the final entry with a feat as impressive as it is puzzling. During the battle with The Juggernaut, Iceman was having a hard time stopping the beast. Once again, he decided to get creative with his powers.

In order to stop the villain, Iceman froze the speed of light around him. Now, light has no actual physical mass that can be frozen. But apparently, Iceman is so powerful he temporarily rewrote the laws of physics themselves to achieve his victory.